The National Academy of Sciences, together with the National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine, will be among the cornerstone partners in USAID's newly launched Global Development Lab. The goal of the lab is to invent, test, and apply cost-efficient, high-impact solutions to help people worldwide lift themselves out of extreme poverty. The lab will be launched today at an event in New York City that will feature remarks by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and a keynote address by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"We share USAID's commitment to achieving transformational results in global development by exploring new ways to use science and technology to solve development challenges," said NAS President Ralph Cicerone."We look forward to sharing our expertise in these fields, helping to enable decision-making grounded in research that has been conducted on critical challenges in international development."

The lab aims to achieve innovative, breakthrough developments in sectors such as water, health, food security, energy, education, and financial inclusion that can reach hundreds of millions of people. To accomplish this, USAID is partnering with over two dozen NGOs, universities, corporations, and science and research institutions.

The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are private, independent nonprofit institutions. Together with the National Research Council, they provide science, technology, and health policy advice to the nation under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863.